ATLANTA - Max Fried picked up where Charlie Morton left off a night earlier on the mound for the Atlanta Braves.
Fried allowed two hits in seven innings, Ozzie Albies and William Contreras homered off Carlos Martínez in a four-run second inning, and Atlanta beat the St. Louis Cardinals 9-1 on Friday night.
"It's exactly what you want to do," Fried said. "Charlie definitely set the tone last night with attacking guys and keeping a good pace, and it felt like I got a little bit off it in the first. I wanted to get back on the attack and throw strikes, and that was kind of the game plan."
Contreras' seventh homer of the season, a solo shot to left field, made it 2-1, and Ronald Acuña Jr. kept the inning alive by walking, stealing second base and scoring on Freddie Freeman's single. Albies, who went 3-for-5 with three RBIs, followed with his 10th homer, a two-run shot to right that made it 5-1.
The Braves are the three-time reigning champions in the National League East, and they are 5 1/2 games back in the division, having won two straight after losing six of seven. St. Louis, which began the night four games back in the NL Central, has dropped five straight and eight of nine on the road.
The Cardinals were outhit 11-3 and have mustered one run the last two nights at Truist Park.
"We've got to be able to separate all these games and know that we've got to play tomorrow and we've got a chance to win and come together as a group," St. Louis shortstop Paul DeJong said. "I think overall we're going to keep encouraging each other and know that we're going to get hot at the right time. We've done it over the course of my career here every year. Late-season runs. We're just going to try to stay in there as much as we can now and try to build some momentum."
One night after Morton didn't allow a hit until the seventh inning of a 4-0 victory over the Cardinals, Fried (4-4) gave up one run and two walks with six strikeouts. The left-hander is 4-3 with a 2.51 ERA in his past eight starts since returning from the injured list with a right hamstring strain.
"His stuff was really good, live down in the zone, good breaking stuff and that's what it takes," Braves manager Brian Snitker said. "We've been scoring enough runs. Hopefully these guys keep feeding off each other. Keep the line moving as far as the starters go. It was good to let the bullpen catch its breath again."
Martínez (3-8) lost his fourth straight decision, giving up eight runs, eight hits and four walks. The right-hander is 1-6 with a 7.52 ERA in eight starts on the road this season.
Atlanta tied it at 1 in the first when Albies hit his 21st double of the year, third in the NL, and scored on Austin Riley's single. The Cardinals had taken the game's first lead when Tommy Edman doubled, advanced on a grounder and scored on Paul Goldschmidt's RBI groundout.
The Braves batted around for a 9-1 lead in the fourth. Acuña was hit by a pitch, advanced to third on Freeman's single and scored on Albies' single. Freeman scored on Abraham Almonte's single, Albies scored on Riley's sacrifice fly and Almonte scored on a bases-loaded walk to Fried.
"It's awesome," Albies said. "It's great. When we go home with a 'W,' every single night the team is happy. Everybody's smiling. I know the game is tough, so it changes everything for us."
Acuña went 0-for-1 with two walks and was twice hit by a pitch, reaching safely for his 26th consecutive game, the longest active streak in Major League Baseball and the second-longest streak of his career. He had a 32-game run from June 19 to July 28 of 2019, his second year in the majors.
Yadier Molina threw out Acuña in a stolen base attempt in the first, with DeJong applying the tag on the Braves star's headfirst slide. Acuña got some payback by stealing his 15th base in the second, after Fried picked off the Cardinals' Edmundo Sosa in 1-3-4 fashion to end the top half of the inning.
Sosa was back in the lineup after getting hit in the right hand by a pitch Wednesday against the Miami Marlins and went 1-for-3.
Cardinals left fielder Tyler O'Neill ran hard to his left to track down Dansby Swanson's fly on the warning track in the sixth.
St. Louis third baseman Nolan Arenado hasn't had a hit in his past 20 at-bats, and his average has dropped 20 points to .266 over that span.